Allergan earnings top Wall Street forecasts

February 2404:472016

Shares of Allergan (AGN), the pending merger partner of U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, rose Monday after the Ireland-based company reported fourth-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street forecasts. The company’s stock closed 3.65% higher at $285.82. Net revenues from Allergan’s U.S. brands, including Botox, the cosmetic drug used to smooth facial wrinkles, helped drive the financial results. U.S. revenue rose 37.5% to nearly $2.5 billion for the three-month period that ended Dec. 31, the company reported.

Allergan said the company’s overall net loss narrowed to $700.5 million, or $1.78 a share, compared with the $732.9 million loss, or $3.34 a share, reported for the same period last year. Excluding special items, Allergan reported diluted earnings per share of $3.41 for the quarter, higher than the $3.32 consensus forecast of financial analysts surveyed by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Net revenue increased 74% to $4.2 billion, topping the nearly $4.18 billion consensus estimate of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Allergan said the company’s financial results were impacted by amortization and acquisition-related expenses, including the $66 billion merger last year with Actavis. In November, Allergan and Pfizer announced plans for a record $160 billion merger, the largest in health-care industry history and the biggest to date involving a controversial tax-saving strategy. If completed, the chiefly-stock transaction would create a combined firm that would retain Allergan’s legal and tax residency in Ireland, which has lower corporate taxes than the U.S.

The Pfizer merger deal would “create a new biopharma leader,” Allergan CEO and President Brent Saunders said in a statement issued with the earnings results. Saunders also said the company had made progress of the planned $40.5 billion sale of its global generics business to Israeli-U.S. multinational Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.